Recover 47 Ford seats or put new ones in?

[46Ford4dr]

The seats in my 47 Fordor are destroyed. The fabric is filthy and crumbling, and the padding is popping out and looks like insulation that you'd find in the attic on an old house, and they smell horrible.

I have an opportunity to put in the seats from my 77 Ford donor car that are in fantastic shape and we measured them and the front seat width is basically identical, and the rear will take a small amount of work, but otherwise, I'd be good to go.

So the question is, do I install the new seats and get rid of the old ones? Or do I attempt to have them re-padded and recovered... I'm torn. I'd love to keep the factory seats, but I don't have the cash to spend to pay someone to recover them.

Thoughts?

[Mart]

If you fit the later seats you will regret it.

Why not just do a home retrim on the seats, just tidy them with new padding and stretched over cover. Just something to make them clean and usable. A proper retrim could come later if and when funds allow.

Not knowing what the rest of the car is like makes it difficult to guess what would be most appropriate.

[46Ford4dr]

Mart, if you click on my name, click View Public Profile, and then scroll bit a little, on the right hand side you will see Albums and that has pictures in it.

Or if you dont feel like doing that, here is a pic where you can see the back seat and only part of the front.

[Ken/Alabama]

Use the old seats in my opinion. Tear down the old seat all the way to the springs the remove the springs from the seat frame and clean , repair any broken coils or wires and repaint them . Hog ring the coils to one another and to the outer wire. Then recover. I done my 40 coupe seat last year sits very good and doesn't sag anymore, you won't be sorry .

[46Ford4dr]

Ken, any idea how much the padding/fabric cost?

[Ken/Alabama]

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Originally Posted by 46Ford4dr

Ken, any idea how much the padding/fabric cost?

Cant really remember but I think it was around $200 for all the materials then I paid the upholster guy another $300 to do the cutting stitching and covering.

[Lawson Cox]

By all means use the original seats if possible. Follow Ken't suggestions.

[TJ]

Many of the places like Le-Baron Bonney or Carouche will sell you just the seat covers. You don't have to buy a complete kit. You can get the padding from them or get padding at your local fabric store. They have foam or synthetic padding that works very well. You can also look on e-Bay and buy some generic covers for not a lot of money and supply your own padding.